When Hope got up from the table to hug Damon, Grace took a few steps backward into the doorway of the kitchen.
Paige pulled Gabe forward. "I'd like you to officially meet my cousin, Damon."
"Nice to meet you, Damon."
Damon took Gabe's hand and tugged him into a bear hug, surprising Grace.
When Damon released him, Gabe cleared his throat. "Didn't know I needed that, but thanks for popping my back."
Hope and Paige burst into laughter, then Hope explained, "Damon doesn't make it home very often, so he makes up for it with his bone-crushing, back-popping bear hugs."
Paige leaned sideways to catch Grace's eye. "Why are you hiding in the doorway?" She motioned for Grace to come closer. "Damon, this is Gabe's sister, Gr?—"
"It's good to see you again, Grace." Wearing the broadest grin Grace had ever seen, Damon held out his hand.
She didn't want to shake it, but she was afraid if she didn't, he'd give her one of his bear hugs. That was somewhat tempting, but she was still mad at him. When he wrapped his fingers around her hand, she did her best to ignore the warmth and strength in his firm handshake.
"You two know each other?" Hope asked at the same time Paige said, "You’ve met?"
Damon released her hand and looked at Paige. "She didn't tell you we were trapped in the elevator together yesterday?"
After Gabe and Paige left last night, she told her mother about her companion from the elevator who turned out to be Paige's cousin. She mentioned that Damon followed her home but downplayed how terrified she’d been.
"No, she didn't tell us." Gabe turned to Grace and folded his arms. "Why is that, Gracie?"
"Gracie?" Eyebrows raised, Damon repeated the nickname. “I thought your friends and family called you Grace.”
"Just how well do you two know each other?" Gabe asked, his expression serious, his eyes still on Grace.
"Oh, knock off the overprotective Big Brother act." She smacked Gabe's arm, then she glared at Damon. "I didn't bother to tell you who I was trapped in the elevator with because I didn't know he was Paige's cousin."
"But you figured it out after you talked to Robert, didn't you?" Again, Damon grinned.
Grace itched to wipe that smirk off his face.
"Robert?" Hope and Paige said in unison.
Grace turned to Paige. "I asked you for Robert's number last night because the stranger I met in the elevator gave off psycho vibes when he followed me home." She propped both hands on her hips as she glared at Damon.
"I just wanted to make sure you made it home safely. That tire could have blown any minute." Damon gave an innocent shrug.
"What tire?" Gabe asked, but Grace ignored him.
"You scared me to death." Her voice rose. "And made me think I'd made the biggest mistake of my life."
Kissing a semi-stranger in the elevator wasn't nearly as big of a mistake as getting pregnant as a teenager. But if said stranger turned out to be a stalker with ill intentions…that was a huge mistake.
Thank goodness that wasn’t the case.
"What mistake?" Gabe and Paige asked in unison.
"Nothing." Grace shot Damon a warning glare.
"It's not nothing." Gabe's gaze turned sharp and piercing. "Whatmistakedid you make?"
"I...I just meant befriending the stranger in the elevator." She shot another warning glance at Damon, whose smile had grown, before turning to Paige. "What would you think if the guy youwere trapped in an elevator with for over an hour followed you home?"
"Thatiscreepy." Paige smacked Damon's shoulder again. "You shouldn't scare women like that."
